Serving all urban consumers : a marketing approach to water services in low and middle-income countries. Book 2. Guidance notes for managers

The key question considered in this book is how utility management best marketing approaches can be adapted to serve low-income areas, so that sustainable services can be achieved. It is of interest for utility managers in low- and middle-income countries, interested in innovative ways of serving their consumers.
Part I provides an introduction and an overview of the water and sanitation service experiences of different consumer groups in developing countries. Examples of innovative marketing approaches using price and service differentiation in the water sector are provided. Problems with the conventional ‘predict and provide’ approaches are outlined, followed by an overview of marketing definitions and how these marketing philosophies relate to the urban water sector. Marketing for sanitation is briefly discussed at the end of Chapter I.
Part II focuses on marketing water services to low-income consumers, including how to gather key information on all consumer groups, using the customer value chain as a framework. Utilities are encouraged to pilot marketing approaches for serving low-income consumers in selected locations, before scaling up to larger areas.
Part III focuses on strategic marketing approaches, enabling the effective scaling up of the pilot approaches and thus moving towards serving all consumer groups across a city or town, in al reliable and sustainable manner.
Many examples of applying different and useful marketing approaches for the urban water sector are provided, including guidance on pilot programmes for serving the poor and scaling up to city wide strategic marketing approaches.